The majority of U.S.-based Christian ministry executives are optimistic about the impact the new administration of President Donald Trump will have on the ministries they lead.

In January’s quarter survey of Christian ministry leaders, over 54% of respondents told MinistryWatch they expect the Trump administration policies to have a positive impact on their organization or the work they do.

Trump administration

About 19% of respondents expect a negative impact on their ministries or the work they do, 5.5% expect no impact, and 21% said they don’t know what kind of impact the new presidential administration’s policies will have.

MinistryWatch has been conducting its quarterly survey of leaders of the nation’s 1,000 largest Christian ministries since October 2022. We have consistently reported about the insights they have provided.

In January and February, we received responses from 134 ministry executives, 87% of whom are in the top role at the organization — CEO, president or executive director. We remain grateful to all of the leaders who have participated.

While we recognize the response size is somewhat limiting, we believe trends we have seen are still noteworthy and have included graphics showing those trends over time.

Revenue expectations

Almost 70% of the survey respondents are optimistic their revenue will increase over the next 12 months. Of those, about 11% expect revenue to increase by more than 10%, while about 59% expect to see revenue increases between 1-10%. Nineteen percent think their organization’s revenue will remain flat, and about 10% think their revenue will decrease over the coming year.

MinistryWatch also asked a related question about whether ministry leaders believe a recession is on the horizon. Many leaders are optimistic about the state of the nation’s economy, with about 63% responding that they do not think the U.S. will enter a recession in the next year, up from 41% in our October survey.

However, 37% of the ministry leaders are not as optimistic about the economy, saying that either the economy is already in a recession or will enter a recession in the next six months to a year.

Over the past 12 months, nearly 61% of ministry leaders say their revenue increased. About 40% said the ministry’s revenue went up between 1% and 10%, while 21% saw increases of over 10%. Eighteen percent reported their revenue remained flat over the previous 12 months.

About 21% of ministries saw a revenue decrease, with revenue decreasing between 1% and 10% for 17% of respondents and more than 10% for about 4% of those who responded.

Significant challenges in ministry

Fundraising continues to top the list of challenges faced by ministry leaders, with 49% of respondents choosing fundraising and revenue as the most significant challenge they face. That is up from 36% in October, an interesting result given the optimism of 70% of ministry leaders about projected revenue increases.

The next most significant challenge remains finding and keeping qualified staff, a persistent second over the past few surveys. About 17% of ministry executives reported staffing as a significant challenge, down from 31% who chose that as their top challenge in October.

Other notable challenges faced by ministry leaders include operational and logistical challenges and succession planning. One comment pointed to the challenge of “paying a livable salary in a high-cost area,” and another noted that the “rising costs of doing business” poses a significant challenge.

Two respondents said their most significant challenges are related to trust. One said they find “honesty in the faith-based nonprofit world” a challenge, and another said it is a challenge to “navigate clean up after full transparency in scandal and building back trust.”

Years in position

The largest portion of the survey respondents — 38% — have been in their ministry leadership position for 10 years or more. As the graph indicates, over the course of the survey, the highest percentage of respondents have indicated their long-term service. However, this survey had the lowest percentage of leaders in the position for at least a decade.

In fact, the percentage of respondents who are relatively new to their positions of leadership is inching up. About 41% of leaders reported being in their positions for five years or less. A year ago that was only 33%.

Age of leaders

The aging of ministry leaders continues to be a trend. Once again, the largest percentage of respondents — 45% — said they are between ages 60 and 70. And over 12% of respondents are between 70 and 80 years of age.

Earlier surveys revealed a slight decrease in the age of leaders, but this quarter’s survey did not bear that out. We will continue to monitor this category.

Nondisclosure agreements (NDAs)

MinistryWatch once again asked ministry leaders about their use of nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) as part of their operations. A debate has arisen in recent years over how and why Christian ministries use NDAs. While NDAs may be used to protect confidential information about how a ministry operates, at other times they may be used to prevent persons from discussing the terms of a settlement agreement. NDAs are binding, and violations can result in a lawsuit.

We began asking about the use of NDAs in April 2023. In that survey, 47% of ministries said they use NDAs, 49% said they didn’t use them and 4% said they didn’t know.

In the most recent survey, 49% of respondents said they use NDAs, while just over 50% said the ministry doesn’t use them.

When asked to elaborate about the purposes for using NDAs, 54% of leaders who used them responded that they are used for protection of proprietary information, 27% said they were required to use NDAs by third party vendors, 25% said NDAs are part of standard onboarding, and 23% use them as part of severance or settlement agreements.

The use of NDAs to protect proprietary information has been the top response for every survey.

Several respondents chose to elaborate further about their answers, telling us they use NDAs to protect donor information. One leader said NDAs are used “for secure information identifying missionaries in sensitive locations.”

Men and women ministry leaders

The vast majority of leaders who respond to our survey — almost 78% — are male. About 23% of the respondents to this survey were women. That is the highest percentage of women leader respondents we have had so far, up from 16% a year ago.

As we’ve reported in the past, more women are at the helm of Christian ministries than those leading secular businesses. According to Investopedia, in 2023, there were 52 women leading Fortune 500 companies, just breaking the 10% mark.

This article has been republished with permission from Ministry Watch.

Kim Roberts is a freelance writer who holds a Juris Doctorate with honors from Baylor University and an undergraduate degree in government from Angelo State University. She has three young adult children who were home schooled and is happily married to her husband of 28 years.

Ministry Leaders Expect Positive Impact from Trump Administration Policies